But at the beginning of the Syrian conflict, her husband was executed in front of the whole family in the suburbs of Damascus. He was accused of collaborating with the “Assad regime.”
After losing her beloved husband, Fatima was traumatized psychologically for a long time. She was not ready to take care of her two children fully during the middle of a war.
Sputnik spoke with Fatima, who shared how she was able to overcome her trauma, become the family’s breadwinner and even start volunteering, devoting herself not only to her children but also to other widows.
“I will never forget the moment when militants killed my husband right before our eyes for the reason that he allegedly had contact with the Syrian authorities. At first, I fell into a great depression and did not leave my house. But over time I began to understand that I have children, I must feed them and provide a roof over their heads,” Fatima told Sputnik.
Fatima bought a sewing machine as she knew how to sew well. She started to provide for her family using her sewing craft.
“I was able to get money to buy a machine and to sign contracts with some factories that paid enough money. Gradually, the responsibility of being the breadwinner started falling on me,” she recalls.
Soon after, Fatima had an idea to turn her house into a small textile shop, where other women in need of labor and funds could also work. She organized her home into a factory and started to help widows learn the technique of stitching clothes.
“I started to teach women the basics of sewing. We stayed up late at night at the workplace, learning how to sew beautifully. After a long period, we became a working team that was able to fulfill orders and bring money to their families. We sell our products to private retail stores,” Fatima explained.
When Fatima hears that a female acquaintance has become a widow and is in need of help, she organizes fundraising among everyone she knows in an effort to try and help the woman in distress because she knows what it is like to be a widow in Syria.
Currently, the official number of women who have started working during the war exceeds 977,000.
These women are forced to work because of a loss of income or due to a difficult financial situation in the family, caused by many years of the civil war.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups. On February 27, a US-Russia brokered ceasefire came into force in Syria.
